𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐍𝐎 𝐒𝐇!𝐓 ▪ peter parker ¹

2. like, that's creepy, right?

Instead, she huffed and headed to the quad, following the sound of commotion. She preferred noise, and the more the better, not because she liked it but because you knew what to do with it. It existed. It could be maneuvered and led. What do you do with nothing?

Click.

On her way out the side door, she nearly bumped into someone hovering just outside of it, stopping herself.

Emilia liked to think she had a pretty solid memory, not eidetic by any means but enough to handle a monologue after two quick read throughs or the planned spots in a twenty minute match. When she stopped, nearly tripping over herself to avoid crashing into the stranger, she took a second shoot them an annoyed glare.

But she recognized the person and the skateboard strapped to his backpack, which was impressive on a first day, but so was the calamity he caused on the bridge that morning. Maybe she was exaggerating about the memory thing a little, given he was in like two of her morning classes, but aside from a horrified look when she sat down on the other side of the classroom from him in English, they blessedly avoided each other.

The boy stood there, completely unaware of anything else around him, as he held a camera up and pointed it somewhere ahead. Not even a little conspicuous, too tall and lanky to go unnoticed, despite no one but Em actually noticing.

She, on the other hand, was too busy realizing what he was taking a photo of — or who.

Gwen, her first day buddy, sat primly on a picnic table reading what looked like — Em squinted — a Kurt Vonnegut book, hopefully for class, because who casually read Cat's Cradle for fun without trying to be ironic? Good lord, this place was totally unaware of how ridiculous it was.

And the boy still didn't notice Emilia was standing there.

"You know this is creepy, right?" she asked not very quietly at all and he jumped at the sound. The same shocked, sort of caught expression passed over him as he paled, eyes darting just like before despite the context shift. "Does she know you're taking her picture?"

"Um. I— No, it's just—" he sputtered her camera lowered but still in his jittery grasp.

"Gwen!" Em shouted over the commotion somewhere on the other side of the quad. "Hey! Gwen! Buddy!"

She whistled like she was getting the attention of a rare bird.

Gwen glanced up from her book as Emilia and the boy stood side by side, and Em noticed him stop inching away, too frozen in his terror. The blonde glanced between us and hesitantly waved. "Hey."

"Hi," Emilia said with a smile, recalling the mess the boy cause earlier in the day. She pointed to him without turning away from her first day buddy. "Do you know he's taking photos of you? Like, that's creepy, right?"

Gwen's brows shot straight up as she glanced at the boy.

"No. I wasn't, I—" His voice got louder but in a way like he couldn't control it or the words coming out of his mouth for that matter. He gestured slightly to Gwen's left. "The tree, it was, you know— A-and the light is just..."

His voice withered away he looked down at his camera, then away, and Emilia grinned wider. "I think he's lying."

Gwen closed her book, surprise still there on her face, but now accompanied by the slightest smile.

The noise on the other side of the open area grew into chants, and like moths following the brightness and warmth of a flame, they all gravitated toward the cacophony of sound and gathered students. She pushed her way through the crowd from a different point than Gwen or the guy she felt the need to embarrass, each of them getting a different vantage point of the scene.